TTCB – News

Students benefit from sports programme
November 14, 2011

AT RISK students in and around Port-of-Spain are being given an opportunity to strengthen their academic performance and simultaneously benefit from a cricket programme supervised by one of the leading coaches in the West Indies.

Currently 200 children from 10 primary schools are involved in the “Sport For Life” programme being conducted at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. It is sponsored by Atlantic LNG and co-ordinated by Kumar Rampat, Territorial Development Officer  of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

Rampat said the programme was started in 2009 and has been very successful in helping the youngsters, who were selected by the principals of the respective schools, for remedial work in the classroom with a bonus of developing their basic technical cricket skills.

He said the children are tutored by school teacher and radio personality Burton “Justin” Dookie every day in one-hour sessions from 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm which are followed by onfield cricket coaching which are conducted by Brent Francis and David Thomasos.

Rampat said that apart from the present crop of children enrolled in the programme, there are also camps which are organized during the school holidays which swell the overall  number of youngsters who stand to benefit.

The schools currently involved are: Mucurapo RC, Bethlehem Boys RC, Woodbrook Presbyterian, St Crispin AC, Tranquility Government Primary, Gaines Normal Memorial, St Agnes AC, Eastern Girls, Belmont Government (Boys) and  Belmont Girls.   

The facility used for the classroom remedial work  has been outfitted by Atlantic LNG with a bank of  desktop computers to one side in a comfortable airconditioned space with offices provided  for the administrators of the programme.

Rampat is enthusiastic about the response of the youngsters to the cricket coaching sessions which he said has already indentified raw natural talent which he hopes will be moulded into future national stars.

He places great emphasis on the allround development of the pupils and values the relationships and inter-actions that are fostered by the programme especially when the representative teams travel for competitive matches away from home.

Rampat said every effort is made to provide all that is necessary to ensure the programme reaps the benefits that are intended as participants are provided with transport to and from their schools, a change of clothes for the cricket sessions and refreshments daily.

Rampat said the feedback has been positive from school principals who have noticed a marked improvement in the academic achievements of their students in the programme which has also served to boost their pool of talent on the cricket field.

“We have had principals say that the students stand out for their improved behaviour and disclipine they obviously learn from their sessions in the Fit for Life Programme,” said Rampat.

Schoolteacher Dookie uses his creativity and his skills as a radio talk show host to engage the children in a unique learning experience which he said has been quite successful to getting the children interested in their schoolwork.

Remedial work linked to the school syllabus with an emphasis on English and Mathematics is covered and there is also time for computer games  and Dookie said that cricket is used as a backdrop for all that is taught and inculcated into the education of the youngsters.

Apart from the significant input of Atlantic LNG and the Ministry of Sport, he said the Fit For Life  programme has also received the support of the Trinidad and Tobago Alliance for Sport and Physical Education. 

He also made special mention of the importance of getting the children to and from the Oval in a safe manner with Maxi taxi Operator Marlon Diaz ensuring that the logistics of that exercise is flawless.